11'8" bridge in Durham NC is unkind to trucks & RVs

There is a low bridge under a NS line in Durham, NC that appears to pwn plenty of novice truckers and RV drivers who think that their vehicles can fit under the span.

Here is a compilation video of many of the crashes.

The bridge even has its own Web Site which goes into further detail.

I think the dumb and inattentive drivers behind the wheels are worse to them, though!

I subscribed to his youtube channel quite awhile ago............funny stuff! Except to the drivers!

Charlie

The bridge owned by Norfolk Southern isn't the problem. It's the drivers who drive those big vehicles thinking they can squeeze underneath the NS underpass in the first place. I mean it's an eleven foot, eight inch underpass. Most commercial vehicles are thirteen to sixteen feet high, way too big for this underpass of a major main line. I mean, they have signs and heck, they even have a warning sign complete with flashing lights to warn big vehicles of the underpasses height and yet time after time, drivers in big vehicles get their big vehicles stuck or practically totaled due to failure to respond to adequate signage and a warning sign complete with lights. How many times will people ram the old bridge before they get it? Probably they'll never learn. I see two solutions too this. 1. Close the underpass forever (unlikey to happen) or 2. Have Norfolk Southern raise the line and make the bridge taller so more vehicle can fit under it safely. (VERY UNLIKELY to see NS raise a main line just because some people want to be dodo's on the road.)

I sat one night laughing my ... off at all the videos. Something that isn't readily apparent from the farther videos, but is a good thing is that the vehicles are primarily slamming into an I-Beam that has mounted a few feet from the bridge, so that is taking the brunt of the force (there's one exceptionally hard hit where the guy even shows how much the beam was bent) even though you can also occasionally see the bridge bounce a bit after some of the accidents.

Another one I found interesting was that so many people were claiming that the bridge had to be lower than 11' 8" and that's why they were hitting it that the DOT measured the bridge... According to the video the lowest point is actually 11' 10.8" or so, which just makes it even worse when people are hitting it because they are then clearly over the 11' 8" posting, not just "scraping by".

I agree the railroad should not have to do anything about this, it is entirely on the stupidity of the drivers ignoring at least three signs and an automatic trip light that flashes when it senses an overheight vehicle approaching from a block or two back...
Sign 1: http://goo.gl/maps/D6IvH
Signs 2: http://goo.gl/maps/5RXZT
And of course the final reminder: http://goo.gl/maps/wB2nG

Ignoring the signs is one thing, or it could be ignorance of the height of your vehicle, which I could certainly understand for some of the campers that lose their air conditioners... But a lot of these are company trucks and things... I really want to know how you explain that one to your boss or contractor... "Uh, I've been driving truck for x years, but, uh, I don't pay attention to clearance signs or big flashing yellow lights..." I wonder how many of the bosses include the words "you" and "fired" in their next sentence.

This is great. My wife and I were on the Carolianian once that was held in Durham for two hours waiting on an NS inspector to check th bridge after being hit. About 2 months later the iron bar was added ahead of the bridge.

Interesting - it appears well over half of those having a problem are amateur drivers, such as campers or rental moving trucks. I rode 'gun with a buddy who was moving a few months ago, it's scary to see someone drive a rental box truck when they have no experience. I also had to convince him not to drive under the UP on Wrightwood, as it was too low...

You'd think renters would actually pay attention to height... At least every time I've rented a truck that's the thing they beat into you the most is to pay attention to your height because even the extended insurance will NOT cover height accidents... But no one thinks it'll happen to them.

We were going to drive underneath the B&M's *really* low bridge north of Schenectady (10'6") with a trailer that was probably 10'5". We turned around.